On 6/26/2012 5:55 AM, Eisboch wrote:

Having been involved in an industry that has seen three major spikes of
solar power interest,
(the first being in the late 70's), the efficiency of solar panels has
gone from from about 8 percent
to about 15-18 percent in the last 35 years. It needs to be triple
that to be a realistic contender
to replace fossil fuels.

Why? Efficiency just determines how many watts per square meter of PV
cell area you get. It's not like we're running out of space for them.
Cost per watt seems more relevant. It's still headed down last I heard.

Wind? Forget it. The largest operational wind turbine (in Germany)
produces 5MW of power
under ideal conditions (wind speed of 30 mph). Most of the time the
output is much less.

That's why there's so many of them. We've been getting more power than
we know what to do with.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/i...l_with_wi.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Oregon